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Beyond the Sun

Midnight at the CosmicMeadow stage and Röyksopp, a nutty Norwegian electronic duo, has the crowd in a dancing thrall when the fun really starts, as acrobats in head-to-toe sparkly gold hit the trampoline in front of the stage.

A bit later, Richie Hawtin, aka Plastikman, directs a frenzy of music behind one of the most sophisticated light shows I’ve ever seen.

This is the Electric Daisy Carnival, a celebration of electronic music, art and all around weirdness. Though to these people, the straight world most of us live in, with its arbitrary rules and general lack of dance-ability, is abnormal, and I can’t say I don’t sympathize with this view.

For all recorded history, humans have been seeking the ecstatic experiences of altered consciousness, dance, music and art, and life sure is more interesting because of that instinct, even if we only observe it in others.

Caroline Miller of the Flaming Lotus Girls, a volunteer art collective in San Francisco, has been working at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for a week on the group’s metal sculpture, “Mutopia,” a series of what she called “spirals of mutating plant-animals.”

Also, they shoot fire.

“I’m all about propane,” she says with a laugh. She’s a scientist at a university in San Francisco when not working with the art collective.

They go through 1,000 gallons of propane each night, plus an additional amount of methanol for extra fire. Different salts give the flames their distinctive colors.

To get in the collective and play a role, “Just show up — that’s all it takes,” she says, a good life rule.

Nearby, Tiesto, the superstar DJ who has a regular Vegas gig at the Hard Rock Hotel, is playing to 40,000.

Katya Chpis is on stilts, covered in leaves, her face painted green, so that she’s like a walking tree. Though born in Kazakhstan, she served in the Marine Corps and now counsels veterans on getting a college education while also doing these performances twice a month or so. When not on stilts, she’s a fire dancer. Her life as a walking tree “is a treasure. Everybody wants to hug a tree,” she says.

As I’m writing this at 2:30 a.m. Saturday, there had been no major incidents here, and I’m grateful for that.

This week, critics questioned whether Las Vegas should have welcomed the event, which was plagued last year in Los Angeles with arrests, chaos and the death of an underage girl.

The debate, humorously likened to the movie “Footloose” about the town where dancing is illegal, felt a bit odd given the nature of our city, with our 24-hour access to alcohol and gambling and the wink-and-nod attitude about prostitution and drugs. How many people commit suicide because of these contributing factors? Last year, there were 400 in Clark County.

But somehow 85,000 young people — roughly the count expected Friday night — having fun and dancing was a dangerous risk.

Mayor Oscar Goodman’s response: "You do the best you can, but if people want to be idiots, you can't stop them." Callous and foolishly phrased, yes, but there’s an element of truth to what he’s saying — nearly 100,000 young people in the same place, and someone is bound to do something stupid, and there’s only so much we can do about it. And, he’s very nearly describing our city’s ethos.

At its best, that ethos is a celebration of freedom, and that’s what Electric Daisy Carnival is. But it’s completely different thing than the Strip. It’s a province of the psychedelic kingdom, described to me by one afficionado as “breaking down the us vs. them thing and believing in a higher pattern.” It’s not just “If it feels good, do it.”

A T-shirt at the event: “People white black brown red Christian Muslim Jewish Should just kick it.” And on the front: “Altogether now.”

Cheesy, yes, but authentic and genuinely felt, and a message our community could use to absorb.

Las Vegas has always been anathema to the aforementioned psychedelia. That’s the whole point of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” — Hunter S. Thompson is testing his ability to handle massive amounts of mind altering substances in a deeply hostile environment.

But a nice ancillary benefit of our massive nightclub industry is that we are now one of the electronic music capitals of world. We should embrace that identity, and with it, Electric Daisy Carnival.

As I walked the grounds and saw the collective energy that comes when a crowd is in sync with the music, I was reminded of Nietzsche describing humanity’s occasional urge to oneness with Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and madness: “Dionysiac stirrings arise either through the influence of those narcotic potions of which all primitive races speak in their hymns, or through the powerful approach of spring, which penetrates with joy the whole frame of nature. So stirred, the individual forgets himself completely.”

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Very nice read, Mr. Coolican. You took an event I had absolutely no interest in and made it interesting. Now that's the mark of a good writer. And the nod to Nietzsche referencing Greek mythology? Brilliant.

I choose not to attend EDC not because of my age or fear of feeling "utter contempt," but because a) electronic dance music is not in my top two favorite genres and, b) I just don't want to stand in line.

Still, I think my children and my wife and I are equally civilized, gap or no gap in our tastes.

Glad to see no one was hurt and the kids had a great time. Takes me back some years when we did the crazy. Make no mistake though this isn't Woodstock never will be. These days some guy spinning tunes named Tiesto is a celeb.

thank you J. Patrick Coolican! finally a positive article from the media (sorry if that sounds cynical). and excellent vocabulary :) i agree with the Good-Man mayor. to the future! may we all evolve!!! <3

What if one was forced to stand in line behind a bunch of scantily dressed nubile teens? Looking for some action?

This is a great event and I'm glad our great mayor is not closed minded and full of hate the way the talk radio blowhards (you knew I'D GET THAT IN) and the neo-prohibitionist out at some of the cop shops.

We now must legalize marijuana and make Nevada the pot and prostitution capital of the world (to save the economy.

Also I find it terrible that the talk radio ranters and anti-ravers put Nascar and NFR on some type of pedestal and knock these beautiful peace loving people. I went into a casino bathroom once during on of the aforementioned events an a guy was going to the bathroom in his cowboy hat. Also, Nascar and rodeo often promote violence, super-patriotism (that leads to War) and other undesirable activities.

The rooms were booked up all over town. This is the bewst think that happeneed in a long time. We also should lower the gambling age to 18, like in Montana.

Is journalism even taught at universities or practiced by the news media anymore? Oh wait. This article just answered my query with a definite 'No!'.

The title of this piece is 'Celebrating freedom through the fantastic at Electric Daisy Carnival'.

Where is 'freedom' addressed? Nowhere. So why put that word in the title? Overblown hype.

Even a lightweight entertainment piece like this one should mention how freedom is celebrated at this Carnival since that powerful word is boldly posted in the title to get readers to peruse the contents.

Did you even read this story, depresseddem? Or did you just wake up this morning looking for something to whine about?

"At its best, that ethos is a celebration of freedom, and that's what Electric Daisy Carnival is. But it's completely different thing than the Strip. It's a province of the psychedelic kingdom, described to me by one afficionado as "breaking down the us vs. them thing and believing in a higher pattern." It's not just "If it feels good, do it....."

Almost 45 years ago to the day I saw my first Dead show; peace, love, unity, respect? we've been trying for years, so I'm happy that many of this generation are following tradition of music as a bridge to understanding and respect. You folks have done a better job at the unity part than we ever did.

Pay little attention to the grouches like Oscar G.....a stumbling display of the corrosive influence of booze, a mobbed-up lawyer preaching values little different than fundamentalists of any stripe.

A masterful piece of writing Patrick C., you capture the intensity well.

Las Vegas Electric Daisy Festival party goes on for three nights, Vegas VIP Entertainment invites you to rave up and dance, dream and explore inside several fully immersive art environments, six stages of world-class music, and a forest of full-sized carnival rides against the vast backdrop of the glittering desert sky.

Excellent event. I'm sorry the hate talk radio local locos and the neo-prohibitionist prudes in Metro and the DA's office have attacked this great event.

Thank God our Great Mayor understands the important contribution this event has made to the area's economy.

The Clark County DA's office has about 500 employees and a $90 million budget. Ten "felony arrests out of 250,000 people" is a better statistic than one alleged crack using DA out of 500 employees. One out of 500 people for the DA's office, and 1 out of 25,000 for the Electric Daisy people have been arrested for drugs.

Metro the same track record, but worse than the Daisey crowd as well. If we add up all the Metro arrested for: child sex charges, drunk driving, drug offences, etc., we find that the Daisy people have a far lower percentage of arrests, than the Metro people.